Method of assorting bristles



J. MORRISON, JR. METHOD OF ASSORTING BRISTLES.

APPLICATION FILED DEC.3. 1918.

1,347,750. Pate t d uly 27, 1920.

a/mmw To all whom c'zf'may concern:

UNITED STATES JOHN MORRISON, JR, 0F vGLEN'S FALLS, NEW YORK.

METHOD ASSORTING BRISTLES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 27, 1920.

lApplication filed December 3, 1918. Serial No. 265,175.

Be it known that 1,,J0HN MORRISON, Jr., a citizen of the United States, residing at Glens Falls, in the county of lVa-rren and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Methods of Assorting Bristles, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to methods of assorting bristles for use in making brushes, and the like, my more particular purpose being to enable the operator to bring the bristles together under such conditions that he may by hand readily extract the longer'bristles and may then subsequently by hand extract bristles somewhat shorter than those first extracted, and repeating the process until several distinct lengths of bristles have been extracted from the general mass of bristles.

This application is a companion of my pending application, Serial No. 265,17 6, filed cc. 3, 1918, for a mechanism for handling bristles, resulting in Patent No. 1,819,104, dated Oct. 21, 1919.

Reference is made to the accompanying drawing forminga part of this specification, in which like letters specify similar parts in all cram figures. I

Figure 1 is a perspective of certain mechanism which may be employed to advantage in connection with my method. I

Fig. 2 is a perspective of the same mecha nism, certain parts being removed.

Fig. 8 is a perspective showing the appearance of the device while in use, certain needle bars being removed to enable the operator to grasp the bristles of a prede tel-mined length.

Fig. 4 shows a part of the same apparatus of that appearing in Fig. 3, arranged to en able the operator to grasp and remove shorter bristles than those contemplated as removable in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a perspective of a bunch of bristles removed by handin accordance with my method; and

Fig. 6 is a perspective showing a bunch of shorter bristles removed from the samemass of bristles, in accordance with my method.

I provide a board 7 which may be the top of a table, or of any other convenient fiat surface, preferably made of wood. Detachably mounted upon this table are a number of needle bars 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, each carrying a number of needles 14, extending I as such.

laterally from it and disposed parallel with each other, in a row. Each needle bar with its needles has substantially the form of a comb and may conveniently be designated The combs are so arranged that the needles 14 of the needle bars 8, 9, 10, cross at a right angle the needles 14 of the needle bars 11, 12, 13, as may be understood from F ig'. 1. Spacing bars 15, 16, are provided for the purpose of engaging the loose or free ends of the needles 14, so that the various needle bars and spacing bars may collectively be formed into a frame, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Bolts 17 18, extend through the board 7 and serve as dowels for the purpose of holding the needle bars and spacing bars temporarily together. The bolts 18 are provided with wing nuts 19 to facilitate this purpose. When the parts are in position, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the variousneedlebars 14 by crossing each other, form a multitude of voids 20 superposed one over another, so as to act more or less 7 like so many small squareholes, as may be understood from Fig. 1.

When the needle bars and spacing bars are assembled and'locked together, as indicated in Fig. 1,'-the various needles 14 are so arranged that they vi-rtually constitute a number of superposed screens, eachscreen con sisting' of two layers of needles, the needles of each layer extending in a direction crossing that of the other. For instance, the needles of the needle bar 8 cross the needles of the needle bar 11 and either touch these needles or else are in very close proximity thereto, so that the two groups of needles collectively. constitute a screen.

The bristles to be operated upon are shown at 21 in Fig. 1 and are thrown loosely upon the top screen, the entire device being meanwhile jarred, if desired, so as to give a slight movement to the bristles and thus allow them to take up new positions; as each bristle has a comparatively smooth and heavy butt end and a light or feathery end, which' drifts by gravity into an upright position, the heavier end being downward. Such being the case the bristles collect in the voids and are arranged with their lighter or feathery ends upward. The operator having filled the voids with bristles, or, at least, having disposed of all the bristles which the device can conveniently accommodate at a single filling, pounds with his hand or with a heater of some kind upon the top ends of the bristles somewhat higher than before. The operator next, by means of his fingers, graspsthe protruding ends of the bristles and by pulling upward thereupon, pulls out the longest of the bristles, as indicated in Fig 3. The bristles thus extracted are shown at 22 and may be tied into a bundle 22, as indicated in Fig. 5. A mass of bristles is thus left in position, as shown at 21, and of this mass the individual bristles are, of course, somewhat shorter than the mean length of the bristles shown at 21 in Fig. 1.

The operator next removes the next successive pair of needle bars, say 9 and 12,- and repeats the operation. He pulls out the protruding bristles 23 and forms, them into a bunch 23, as shown in Fig. 6, thus leaving a mass of bristles 21".

Any number of needle bars may be thus used and removed in successive pairs, the operator pulling out the longest bristles .protruding and tying them into bunches by means of bands or strings 24, 25, shown in F igs.5 and 6. The residue of the mass of bristles, as shown at 21 in Fig.4, and these bristles may either be tied up into a single bundle or made up into smaller bundles, as desired. 7

While the apparatus shown and describe instances.

is convenient for use in connection with my method, it-is not absolutely essential in all I claim:

1. The method herein described of assorting bristles, which consists in arranging a plurality of needle bars with their needles crossing each other so as to form voids, showering bristles upon said needles and guiding said bristles between said needles in order to arrange said bristles with their lengths extending in a common direction and their butt 7 ends extending in a single direction, removing some of the needle bars in succession so as to draw out the needles and leave the ends of the bristles protruding, grasping said ends by hand, pulling upon them so as to dis engage them from the mass of bristles and finally tying the bristles thus extracted into bundles of convenient size.

2. The method, hereindescribed, of ass0rting bristles which consists in superposing one upon another a number of separate screens each made inparts for enabling it to be taken apart piecemeal, packing loose bristles into said screens so that each bristle extends through a plurality of said screens and that the bristles are thus formed practically into a mat, then grasping the longest of said bris tles, drawing them out endwise and laying them aside, next'taking one of said screens apart so asto leave a number of bristles protruding, next grasping the bristles thus left protruding, drawing said last mentioned bristles out and laying them aside in a group separate from those first drawn out, and finally arranging the different groups of bristles into bundles of convenient size.

JOHN. MORRISON, JR. 

